Samuel Kerridge, Waiting for Love

[Downwards]


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Samuel Kerridge provided one of the most fascinating debuts of recent memory in the shape of Auris Interna, quietly released in the second half of 2012 on Horizontal Ground. A morose and low-pulsed black rumble, the record was a stern lesson in both high tension and virtuoso sub play. On Waiting For Love, he sets to work ladling out more of his exotic aural hell broth, this time for Birmingham’s legendary purveyors of sonic toil and curiosity, Downwards Records. Rest assured, it’s an even more accomplished set than his first.


Samuel Kerridge, Excerpts from Waiting for Love

Waiting for Love comprises four movements, and a seedy velvet atmosphere is present throughout — it plays like the soundtrack to a sinister Masonic ball in some crumbling colonial embassy, dread ritual atmosphere and jaded romance evoked through sharp acoustic divination. “Waiting for Love 1” features a volley of woody drums fighting against a tsunami of sub and distortion and frequently being consumed wholesale, only to reappear later in subtly different form. “Waiting for Love 2” ups the clarity level in the low range, featuring a brutal bass charge offset against mauve shadow play that draws comparison with the late-90s Virus/No U-Turn/Metalheadz school of sepulchral DnB. “Waiting for Love 3” is perhaps the darkest cut, using a breathy gas mask sample as a percussive element, along with concave subs and piercing metallic stabs; it’s literal underground — music for the famished subterranean resistance. A respite of sorts is afforded by the lush sweeps and waves of “Waiting for Love 4,” but the damage has been done — when Kerridge hits, you stay down. This is a deadly serious record, almost perverse in malevolent spirit. However, it’s also such an involving listen that you’ll still be picking up subliminal frequencies after repeated plays — something of a major release, and one that sets a very high watermark for ceremonial, august atmospherics.

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